Just moved up from AOL Cubs to Boy Scouts Troop and my son’s history is counting a camp night that occurred 2 years ago as a cub. BSA 135992642. This night should not be counted toward Boy Scouts. How can this be corrected?
@ReneeAbushakra - the date joined scoutsBSA is the key. It is in the scout profile where that needs to be answered. Just do not have that camping deleted as it counts for the National Outdoor Activity award.
click on scout > Edit Profile > click on Date Joined ScoutsBSA
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While that night of Cub Scout camping can’t count towards merit badges or rank requirements, it can count towards the BSA’s National Outdoor Awards:
From the Scouts BSA Requirements book:
National Outdoor Awards
Outdoor activities completed as part of any BSA program (Cub Scouting, Scouts BSA, Sea Scouting, Venturing, or Exploring) may be used to satisfy the requirements of the National Outdoor Awards so long as conducted as part of an approved unit, district, or council program. This is referred to as “under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America” in the requirements.
As @Stephen_Hornak said, the “Date Joined Scouts BSA” can be used in reports to filter out Cub Scout activities when they are not applicable.
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Interesting. I’ve had the same problem for years. My son’s joining date is listed as May 2017, and the Cub Scout camping night was in December 2016, so his Cub Scout camping night obviously doesn’t count towards his Camping Merit Badge 20 night requirement (which he’s far exceeded anyway), but it’s intentional that this still appears in his camping activity records, because of the National Outdoor Award?
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The activity logs are intentionally displaying all recorded activities, irrespective of which program they were completed in. The logs are specific to the participant, not to the program in which they are participating.
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@TimothyMcAllister1 - interesting that you note this as a problem. So in the profile for your scout you have the full May 2017 date or are you looking at the membership page in scoutbook. But based on what was noted above. .ALL outdoor activities can and will fall in the scout of the National Outdoor award if done within the scouting program… dont see this as a “problem”
Circling back a bit here, camping nights for Camping MB are more than just whether or not there was a night logged for the scout. As I’m sure you (and other scouters) already know, there are additional requirements (e.g. currently not more than 6 nights from one long term camp, in a tent you pitched or under the stars, etc) applied to the camping nights for Camping MB. Just counting up the total nights since joining Scouts BSA isn’t going to be enough to determine whether or not a scout satisfied the requirements for Camping MB. That is just one reason why a merit badge counselor is involved (i.e. to check per the requirements as written), and it’s not just a programmatic yes/no for approval of this requirement, based on how many nights are in the logs.
Putting that aside, there’s nothing that says there may not be changed requirements in the future for Camping MB, or any other advancement or award that depends on nights camped in some way. Or even a new award or advancement item altogether. Based on that, it doesn’t make sense to exclude something from an activity log because it doesn’t apply to a particular set of requirements currently. The activity happened (we hope), so it’s really a question of whether or not it meets the criteria to satisfy the requirement to which it is potentially being applied.
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It actually would be helpful if Scoutbook’s functionality under camping activity were expanded a bit, so maybe showing what nights were done as a Cub Scout separately from the ones that were done as a Scout, and maybe also indicating which long-term nights (my son did 3 weeks of Scout camp as well as a Philmont trek, for a total of 23 nights or so, but of course only 6 of those count towards the Camping Merit Badge). Our Troop’s advancement chair has requested that we not enter any more than one long-term camping event, as the rest don’t “count”, but I pointed out to her that they could count for things like OA eligibility and I guess maybe the National Outdoor camping award.
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@TimothyMcAllister1 - that is why in the scout profile the date joined scoutsBSA is key as the troop can filter the cub nights out. BUT DO NOT EVER DELETE THEM. It is a total lack of understanding that causes this sort of “problem” and not entering items shorts the scout…
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@TimothyMcAllister1 - when the advancement chair dictates what the scouts can and can not do or enter… it is time to move along… sorry that person is dead flipping wrong
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This is why I tell every parent to log all hiking, camping, and service hours or to pass them to me to log for their scout(s). Keeping complete record of a cubs achievements might help them in the future.
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Camping doesn’t, Hiking does for Hiking as it states it in the right up for NOAA.
Anytime National, council or District would like to hold a training on Scoutbook I’m all for it.
Many Councils offer Scoutbook training at their University of Scouting.
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I know we’re wandering into program here, but, in the interests of making sure scouts can get credit for what they’ve done:
https://www.scouting.org/programs/scouts-bsa/advancement-and-awards/noa/
states (under Camping):
- Complete 25 days and nights of camping—including six consecutive days (five nights) of camping (Sea Scouts may be on a boat), approved and under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America…
(Emphasis added)
Cub pack (or Webelos den) camping is conducted “under the auspices and standards” of the BSA. I’d take the program question to your district/council advancement committee so they can get official clarification.
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